Public Relations and Participatory Culture
Fandom, Social Media and Community Engagement
Routledge New Directions in PR & Communication Research Series

While public relations practitioners have long focused on the relationship between organizations and their stakeholders, there has never been a time when that relationship was so dominated by public participation. The new model of multiple messages originating from multiple publics at varying levels of engagement is widely acknowledged, but not widely explored in scholarly texts.

The established model of one-way communication and message control no longer exists. Social media and an increasingly participatory culture means that fans are taking a more active role in the production and co-creation of messages, communication, and meaning. These fans have significant power in the relationship dynamic between the message, the communicator, and the larger audience, yet they have not been defined using current theory and discourse. Our existing conceptions fail to identify these active and engaged publics, let alone understand virtual communities who are highly motivated to communicate with organizations and brands.

This innovative and original research collection attempts to address this deficit by exploring these interactive, engaged publics, and open up the complexities of establishing and maintaining relationships in fan-created communities.

Part I: Foundations 1. Introduction2. Social Media, Promotional Culture and Participatory Fandom 3. Public Relations and the Attempt to Avoid Truly Relating to Our PublicsPart II: Theoretical Approaches to Public Relations, Engagement and Fandom 4. Encouraging the Rise of Fan Publics: Bridging strategy to understand fan publics’ positive communicative actions 5. Extending the Conversation: Audience reactions to dialogic activity on Twitter 6. Gamification in PR 7. How the Top Social Media Brands Use Influencer and Brand Advocacy Campaigns to Engage Fans 8. Brand Communities in Social Media: Strategic approaches in corporate communication 9. Gearing Toward Excellence in Corporate Social Media Communications: Understanding the why and how of public engagement 10. New Media, New Media Relations: Building relationships with bloggers, citizen journalists and engaged publicsPart III: Brand Perspectives: Applying theories of public relations and fandom in corporate, government, and nonprofit spaces 11. General Mills: [Re]Manufacturing the gluten-free consumer community 12. Boosters, Idealized Citizens and Cranks: City communicators share and moderate information in social media, but real engagement is messy and time-consuming13. Brand Community Management via Google+ 14. What’s at Stake in the Fan Sphere: Crisis communication, skittles and how the Trayvon Martin case mobilized a fan-brand community 15. Riding the Wave: How the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge used storytelling and user-generated content to embrace slacktivism 16. Facilitating the "Charged Public" Through Social Media: A conversation with Disney Cruise Line’s Castaway Cay Club Members Part IV: Stakeholder Engagement and Communication in Traditional Fan Spaces 17. The Transmedia Practices of Battlestar Galactica: Studying the industry, stars and fans 18. The Structuring of Fan Communities in Sport: A public relations perspective 19. Entertainment-Education and Online Fan Engagement: The power of narrative to spark health discussions/action 20. When Going Silent may be More Productive: Exploring fan resistance on Twitter to the Baltimore Ravens live-tweeting the Ray Rice Press Conference

Natalie T. J. Tindall is Associate Professor, Georgia State University, USA

Amber L. Hutchins is the Robert D. Fowler Endowed Chair in Communication, Kennesaw State University, USA.